Longevity fuels creativity, and vice versa

By Elizabeth O'Brien

“You can keep your boy geniuses in Silicon Valley, your young guns tearing up the fashion world, your celebrated wunderkinder in music and art and finance and government,” writes Jeffrey Kluger in a recent article in Time magazine. Instead, let’s celebrate the authors, architects, painters and composers who produce some of their best works late in life, he writes.

Increasingly, brain research is illuminating the connections between creativity and age, the article says. And it’s not just the masters—such as Frank Lloyd Wright, who started designing New York City’s iconic Guggenheim Museum at age 76, or Grandma Moses, who embarked on a successful painting career at the same age— who can benefit from thinking creatively later in life. Doctors, lawyers, hedge-fund managers and others have to think creatively to succeed, Kluger writes, and evidence suggests that their work, which requires them to remain nimble and adaptive, also helps them to remain creative over time.

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What if Van Gogh had lived to be an old man?

This kind of activity helps neurons in the brain continue to add insulating fat layers in a process known as myelination, which, in turn, helps keep the brain running smoothly. In recent years, the article says, researchers have been surprised to discover that myelination continues into our 50s and even 60s.

To be sure, not all intellectual functions hold up well in old age. Fluid intelligence, which involves working memory, computational speed and the ability to hold multiple ideas in the mind at once, takes a big hit. That’s why mathematicians, physicists and chess players tend to do their greatest work when they’re in their 20s and 30s, since those disciplines require such skills, Kluger writes.

But brain adaptations in older age, such as an increasing cooperation between the left and right hemispheres, can particularly benefit artists. And, of course, it helps to be happy. Multiple studies show happiness contributes to a longer life, and those who are exercising their creative potential are more likely to be content.

About Encore

Encore looks at the changing nature of retirement, from new rules and guidelines for financial security to the shifting identities, needs and priorities of people saving for and living in retirement. Our lead blogger is editor Matthew Heimer, and frequent contributors include editor Amy Hoak, writer Catey Hill, and MarketWatch columnists Elizabeth O’Brien, Robert Powell and Andrea Coombes. Encore also features regular commentary from The Wall Street Journal retirement columnists Glenn Ruffenach and Anne Tergesen and the Director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, Alicia H. Munnell.